Let us have safe bicycle infrastructure do that we can bike to those stores, how about that? And with that, add mixed constructions in the suburbs so that people have small local stores around.

A bike costs a fraction of a car

Bicycle infrastructure building and maintenance costs a fraction of that for cars

Bicycles don't emit CO2. And for those wise asses saying that the cyclist does, it's a fraction of a fraction of a car because you're not lugging 2 tonnes of stell around to transport you and a bottle of milk.

Cycling infrastructure is much more efficient, you can push a shit tonne more people over the same road if you don't need big ass cars. Yes, even your Mercedes smart car is I ass compared to a bicycle

It creates much much less pollution from tire dust

It's much safer, bicycles kill only a fraction of the people that cars kill all year round

It's healthier, people do exercise not because they went to the gym, but all day every day with their bikes

It cuts the noise pollution

It's cheaper because no taxes, no gas needed, maintenance is a fraction of that of a car.

It's way less wasteful

It lowers aggression. Though it may or may not exist, I've never heard of bicycle road rage

Need more?

Less cars is less parking spaces. Parking spaces get cities barely any taxable income. Instead of these ugly ass concrete wasteland parkitsoaces you can now have restaurants with outside patios which can be taxed. Couple that with the cheaper infrastructure, and that alone should be an obvious reason as to why do this

It's really not that much slower. For typical short trips, bicycles usually only add some 10-20% of required time to your trip.

For any trip over say, 5-10 kilometers, use good public transportation

For those once in a lifetime trips where you actually need a car because you need to transport something huge, use one of those Evo rent-a-car.

In the Netherlands, a huge amount of people don't have a car. Not because they can't (they totally can) but because it's stupid to have one. You can go everywhere by bike, you can jump with your bike in a train when needed to go further, cars are expensive and bad for everyone, why even have one?

My only gripe with that car is that it looks really bland. Then again I am no James Dean where I sit with two kids seats with the back full of shopping

But they're not cheap after the tariffs. Yes, cheaper than German luxury cars, but not cheaper than comparable cars.

Every new car is a piece of shit spy ware device that collects and sells your data

Fuck me, it has to be sad living in this paranoid state...

I’d rather china have my data than a fucking capitalist company or America

Ignorance at it's best. You'd rather support the state that is committing literal genocide than capitalism.

Sure, capitalism is cancer and sucks, but I don't think it's worse than genocide, mate.

CCP subsidizes the absolute shit out of domestic EVs

Not really. Metal is cheap. Lithium and rare earths are cheap. Abundance policies for raw materials aren't subsidies. Inflation is low and so are interest rates, and so factories are also cheap. Abundance in robotics too. Highly automated factories make low cost cars.

Prices are not absurdly lower than western cars. Maybe $5k less for equivalent to Tesla, and

which basically forces people to buy them

a key program in China is not from CCP. City governments give licence plates to EVs letting them drive every day. There is a trade in incentive, and sales tax break, still, afaik, but all of that is less than what US had, and EVs without subsidies are cheaper than ICE vehicles, as they are starting to be in the west as well.

You are being downvoted because you don't know what you're talking about, and "everyone's a tankie" for not being as uninformed or propagandized as you.

Ignorance is bliss I guess? New cars are pretty much computers on wheels that collect data. This is not a secret or anything.

I mean, fuck China and the genocide of the Uighur. It's terrible. But I'm pretty confident that capitalism killed a whole lot more people throughout history.

The ebike option meme is so laughable. I recently did some research on cargo bikes and the entry models cost as much as a used ICE car with no air con, no rain cover, no heating, no safety. Ebike people are straight up delusional in thinking this is ready to replace cars.

Getting a second hand ice car is objectively the best thing you can do right now for everyone involved unless you ride half a million km a year.

The evidence is in the fact that it's a Chinese company. They are required by law to provide the government with all the data they collect (and we know they collect data).

Yes it literally phones back every bit of data. What other evidence do you need?

Yes. They are. Significantly.

Point me to a BYD vehicle that's cheap and its DIRECT competitor that costs significantly more.

They're pretty expensive if you consider the fact that the Germans know how to make a car, and the Chinese only know how to make a powertrain and infotainment. And they still cost about as much as the Germans for similar segment vehicles, so really you're even getting less for your money.

I'm genuinely surprised people be ok with BYD on Lemmy. It's authoritarian spyware, period. There are more options than these two - ww don't have to choose the lesser evil.

If you're comparing them to those brands then you're obviously just intentionally cherry picking vehicles that are not comparable and you know it.

Right but has anybody actually run a packet inspector on the data, or even confirm that it is sending packets back and by what method?

Because everybody "knows" China does this but everybody also "knows" that the Facebook app listens to you. As far as I know no evidence has ever been provided of either claim. The evidence is always ooh well I spoke about yoghurts and then 3 days later I had an advert for a yoghurt, which is somewhat unconvincing as conclusive proof.

On a side note, Audi and VW are both under the same owner.

Why are German cars a bad choice? I'd rather buy German than get another Citroen tbh.

Well, Germany is still actively supporting a genocide, and their car industry is probably supplying a not-insignificant amount of funds for that.

New cars are pretty much computers on wheels that collect data

There's a difference between what telemetry a German car gathers, and what a Chinese car gathers. And where is it sent.

The data from EU companies is anonymised and private. The data from Chinese companies is always available to their government.

I mean, fuck China and the genocide of the Uighur. It’s terrible. But I’m pretty confident that capitalism killed a whole lot more people throughout history

Ah, I guess it's fine then. Since throughout history more people died because of capitalist policies, then we can support China with a clear conscience!

I do 100% agree with this, though:

Ignorance is bliss I guess?

New cars are pretty much computers on wheels that collect data

There's a difference between what telemetry a German car gathers, and what a Chinese car gathers. And where is it sent.

The data from EU companies is anonymised and private. The data from Chinese companies is always available to their government.

I mean, fuck China and the genocide of the Uighur. It’s terrible. But I’m pretty confident that capitalism killed a whole lot more people throughout history

Ah, I guess it's fine then. Since throughout history more people died because of capitalist policies, then we can support China with a clear conscience!

I do 100% agree with this, though:

Ignorance is bliss I guess?

The cars have a factory installed SIM-card that allows remote control AND remote access to the integrated phone system (without giving any notion that somebody is listening in on you in your car).

everybody also “knows” that the Facebook app listens to you

Shhhhhh, Facebook Actually Is Listening: Surveillance Marketing Explained | ESTIPONA GROUP

You’ve heard the questions and conspiracy theories, but we’ve done the research, and guess what? Facebook really is listening. So are your other devices. Here’s how that affects advertising, why you should care — and how to lock your devices down. Short of moving all conversations to a cone of silence, that is.  In a recent Estipona team meeting, our VP of Creative, Paige Galeoto, was sharing a seemingly inconsequential tidbit about her life: Namely, the fact that she had recently purchased recyclable produce bags for her trips to Raley’s. 

(www.estiponagroup.com)

As for China - THIS the bog-standard procedure for any tech-related company when an employee has to travel to China. Give them a burner phone and laptop, zero company data on them, zero access to critical company data, after they return, just throw the gear away.

I honestly don't now what other proof would you need, when we know them spying on regular people has been happening for decades.

The worrying part is that they kinda seem to be implementing good policies for (at least some of) their people.

There's a lot of disturbing stuff, and probably a whole lot more that we don't even know about, but social security, education, healthcare - my impression is that they're going the right way, while the US looks eager to go back to the Dark ages.

Just with STEM degrees, they're producing almost 5x more graduates than the US, and they've surpassed the number of doctorates a long time ago too.

The current world balance won't hold one more generation.